


A Monopoly on the Truth

by out_there



Category: Prison Break
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-08
Updated: 2008-10-08
Packaged: 2017-10-09 16:26:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/out_there/pseuds/out_there
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael doesn't know what he's doing but Sara knows it, and Alex knows it.  If he has to feel his way through this on faith, Michael can't think of two people he trusts more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Monopoly on the Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Something For Kate's song, "Whatever You Want". I blame [](http://isagel.livejournal.com/profile)[**isagel**](http://isagel.livejournal.com/), [](http://sdwolfpup.livejournal.com/profile)[**sdwolfpup**](http://sdwolfpup.livejournal.com/) and [](http://aurora-84.livejournal.com/profile)[**aurora_84**](http://aurora-84.livejournal.com/) for making me think about why I think an open relationship/roughly understood threesome should be canon for these three. Unbeta'd so all errors are mine.

Michael's always understood the distinction between the truth and what people need to know. Even as a kid, back when Linc first got out of juvie -- when Linc sat him down and said, "Mike, whatever happens, you can tell me the truth. You know that, right?" -- Michael had known to agree, nod, and keep certain details to himself. There was no point telling the truth if it didn't make a difference to anyone. There was nothing Linc could do, nothing Linc could change, so he didn't need to know.

Linc is probably the one person who knows him best in the entire world, but there are still things Michael doesn't tell him.

He doesn't tell Linc about Alex. How the corners of Alex's fingernails caught his skin, scratching thin white lines along his arms. Alex's open mouth sliding down the inked lines of his back. The heat of Alex's palms, the damp temptation of Alex's breath against his lips.

Linc doesn't need to deal with it, so Michael doesn't tell him.

***

It's something Sara should know, so Michael tells her. Not the details -- not the way Alex talks nonsense, voice soft and low, breath catching when Michael uses teeth -- but he tells her. In the cramped cabin of the yacht, he says, "I thought you were dead. I thought I'd got you killed and while I was in Sona, there were... I did things."

Sara nods and a strand of hair falls loose from behind her ear. "Do you want to tell me?" she asks carefully, feeling her way around the subject.

"I think I should. I think..." Michael looks out, but all he can see through the glass is warehouse walls. "I don't think it changes anything but you should know."

"Okay," she says, and waits for him.

Michael gets as far as "Alex and I…" before his certainty and his courage deserts him.

"Oh," Sara says, grimacing, and then, "I kind of guessed."

"You did?"

Sara shrugs, catches chocolate-dark hair in her fingers, twists it nervously as she looks away. "I thought something had happened. Wasn't sure if I was imagining it or not, but if something hadn't happened, I thought... something might."

Michael wants to ask what this means, if this changes everything, but instead he says, "We slept together. It was only a couple of times and I thought you were dead. I wasn't sure if we were going to make it out and all Alex cared about was seeing his son again, and--"

"It's okay," Sara says simply and her eyes are kind.

Michael stares at her. He wants what he always wants from her: absolution, forgiveness, acceptance. Time and time again, she gives this to him as if it's as easy as walking, as if loving him is so simple and natural she could do it in her sleep, but every time it takes him by surprise.

She catches his hands in hers, presses a kiss to the back of one and then the other. "It's weird, I know. But… Weird isn't bad. I think it'll be okay."

"You're sure?" Michael asks, disbelief bleeding into his tone.

"If I can handle you being married to a Russian stripper--"

"Czech," Michael corrects absently, feeling stunned.

Sara smiles, nearly laughs. "If I can handle a Czech stripper, I can handle you sleeping with Alex Mahone."

One tug, and he pulls her to him. Sliding hands around her narrow shoulders, Michael kisses her temple, her cheek, the curved edge of her smile. He pulls back when her phrasing hits him. "It's not sleeping, it's slept with. In the past. It's not-- I wouldn't even-- I wouldn't consider--"

Her lips are soft and sudden on his, reassuring and gone faster than he'd like. "I'm just saying," she says, thumb brushing the side of his neck, "if something happens, I think I'd be okay with it. I think... I think we'd still be here together, you and me, and I think we'd be okay."

***

Sara blurs his boundaries, makes him capable of exceeding his own plans. She makes Michael question his decisions, leaves him unsure of his own limits. It's wonderful, if a little terrifying, how cleanly Sara can cut through his assumptions.

He's left debating whether or not he should tell Alex, not knowing if he wants this gift of trust, if he'd be abusing it or not. He doesn't know how to act so he errs on the side of caution, avoids the subject completely.

It's Alex who approaches him, who finds him standing on the warehouse roof, looking out across the water. "I had a very interesting conversation with Sara this morning," Alex offers as an opening gambit.

Michael shrugs. Ignores the tightness in his throat.

"You didn't have to free me," Alex says, and Michael doesn't know which time they're talking about. Although the fact that he's done it more than once, Michael knows that means something.

Michael buries his hands in his pockets, holds his ground. "I can't lose Sara."

"Tell me something I didn't know." When Michael looks sideways, Alex isn't watching him. He's watching the boats in the distance, the watery horizon stretching out. Alex smiles, as if he knows Michael's searching for clues. "I mean it, Michael. Tell me something I don't know about you."

"I prefer a latte to espresso?"

"Knew that." Alex grins at him for a moment. "I talked to your local Starbucks. Want to try again?"

"I'm not sure what I'm doing here. Not Self and the Company, but you and Sara. I'm not..." Michael shrugs. Drops his gaze to his sneakers and wriggles his toes. "People and relationships... This stuff isn't exactly my speciality."

"Really think I didn't know that?"

Strangely, that makes it okay. Michael doesn't know what he's doing but Sara knows it, and Alex knows it. Sara already has his heart and he'd put his life in Alex's hands without a moment of doubt. If he has to feel his way through this on faith, Michael can't think of two people he trusts more.

So he takes a breath and says, "When I was fifteen, Jason Beyer invited me to hang out with his friends at the arcade. I ended up in the back alley with him, making out until midnight. Linc nearly tore me a new one when I got home."

Cautiously, Michael adds, "I never told Linc what happened, how I lost track of time."

When he looks over, Alex is watching him, face open with surprise.

"Now that," Alex says with a soft smile Michael hasn't seen before, "is something I didn't know."


End file.
